DELHI, India, CMC-West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith powered a run chase as Mumbai Indians beat Perth Scorchers by six wickets to enter the semifinals of the Champions League Twenty20 here yesterday. Smith smashed 48 in 25 balls and shared the spotlight with Rohit Sharma who was unbeaten on 51 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.
Sharma smashed a 24-ball 51 as Mumbai chased down 149 in 13.2 overs to qualify.
Mumbai needed to reach the 150-run target set by Perth in 14.2 overs to get past Otago Volts on net run-rate and join Rajasthan Royals in the semis from Group A. In the end, they needed just 13.2 overs to get the job done on the blitzes from Smith who hit five fours and three sixes and Sharma whose innings included three fours and four sixes. Smith provided the big hits starting from the second ball of the innings, which he slogged over mid-on before dispatching another over the rope at long-on.
Scorchers had three left-arm spinners in their line-up, including the experienced Brad Hogg, but their spin attack was also demolished by a rampaging Smith.
He then smashed a delivery from Hogg over midwicket for a six and was well positioned to do the same to the next one but didn’t connect and was caught on the square-leg fence.
Kieron Pollard joined in with an 18-ball 23 before falling 13 runs short of the target and Ambati Rayudu finished things off with consecutive sixes .
